Various products are available in the agricultural markets to improve plant and crop growth or success. For example, clay granules are used as a carrier for pesticide active ingredients that are planted with corn to combat corn rootworm. One such carrier is AgSorb®, a mineral based product which may be utilized to deliver a chemical, biological or biorational active ingredient to a plant or crop.
Verge™ is an engineered granule built up from clay “fines”—the smallest screened particles. The basic Verge™ process involves mixing the fines with water, and extruding this mixture through various die plates to make “noodles.” The die plates can be changed to make noodles of different diameters. The mixture might also be extruded under different pressure using either a high pressure extruder (e.g., axial extruder) or lower pressure extruder (e.g., basket extruder). The noodles are then cut into small segments and placed in a device that rounds or spheronizes them into virtually dust free, free-flowing and nearly perfectly spherical particles. The noodles might also be cut and dried without rounding or spheronizing and further reduced in size if desired. Because of the absorbency and natural binding characteristics of clay, various other liquid and powdered materials can be added at the beginning of the process to provide additional attributes to the resulting engineered Verge™ granule. Additionally, the extrusion process itself enhances certain attributes of a resulting product. This particular application involves adding a humic acid source in a manner that enhances the delivery of humates to the plant.
In addition to extrusion, the composition in this invention can be processed into granules by other methods including agglomeration and compaction/pressing. Agglomeration involves the building up of smaller particles into larger particles. The process utilizes the circulatory/tumbling action of a rotating disc pan (pan agglomerator) or the friction action of a pin mixer to aggregate or build up finer particles into larger granules. Oftentimes, water and/or binding agents are used to help build up the particles into granules and different mixing/rotating speeds are used to control final granule size. Pre-mixed blends of small particles can be agglomerated into larger granules. In addition, other additives may be added to the particles during the agglomeration/build up processing. The final agglomerated granules might be dried depending upon the desire moisture content.
Compaction is another method used to turn loose smaller particles into larger, dense aggregated masses. Smaller particles are placed under pressure and compressed into various solid forms that might include bars, cubes, pellets, pills, etc. Misted water or steam might be used in the process along with binders that aid in compaction. Pre-mixed blends of smaller particles can be pressed into larger forms as well and the pressure can be adjusted accordingly to desired characteristics. Oftentimes, larger massive compacted blocks are further reduced in size via grinding or crushing. The reduced matter is then screened to desire particle sizes. Smaller pressed pills (1 mm-3 mm) are used as is.
Humates are basically salts of humic acids and normally include humic acid, fulvic acid, and ulmic acid. Humic and fulvic acids are strong chelating agents whose properties benefit plants and trees. Humic and fulvic acids are produced by biodegradation of dead organic matter. Humic acid is not a single acid; rather, it is a complex mixture of many different acids containing carboxyl and phenolate groups so that the mixture behaves functionally as a dibasic acid or, occasionally, as a tribasic acid. Humic and fulvic acids are commonly used as a soil supplements in agriculture, and less commonly as human nutritional supplements. A natural source of humic and fulvic acid is leonardite.
Some products take leonardite and form it into a pellet or granule for depositing on crops. Pelleted leonardite comes with several disadvantages. First, the resulting pellets are very dusty. Workers must take precautions to avoid exposure to the dust, the leonardite may blow away before it can be utilized by the plant, or leonardite may drift to areas where it is undesirable. Second, leonardite is low in pH. Third, only some, but not all, of the humic acid in the leonardite pellets is released over time into the soil. Fourth, because leonardite pellets have very little “liquid holding capacity,” there is no opportunity to load anything to the resulting product. As a result, leonardite pellets are often one component of a soil supplement solution, and other processes—such as separately increasing the pH of the soil through sprays or other solutions to maximize humic acid release, and adding other materials to the soil—are separately required.
Alternatives to pelleted leonardite also have significant disadvantages. Some means to extract humic acid from leonardite use strong caustic solutions (for example, potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide). The resulting material is highly corrosive, and poses various health-related risks to handlers of the material and needs to be diluted before it can be safely applied.
Citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention.